Countdown

19 March, 2006

With the original 64 pared down to the Sweet 16, what does your bracket look like? Mine isn’t looking too bad.. I’m 34 and 14 through the first two rounds. I should be doing better.. going against my better judgment, I picked Big East Champs, Syracuse.. I should have known better.. Guess I got caught up in the way they played in the meaningless conference tournament..

Now, they did do something that has never been done in the Big East, no team who didn’t have the first round bye has won the tournament. But they had to win at least 2 games to make it to the Big Dance, the only team that actually would have benefited from beating the Orange was possibly Georgetown, but they made the tournament anyway.. they may have slipped a seed or two, but they are doing fine as a seven seed.

Every year, between selection Sunday, and the first tip just after noon on Thursday, everyone talks about who got the shaft, and who got lucky, and which conferences were snubbed, and which ones got to many teams in. A lot of the talking heads were saying the Big East was over estimated by getting a record 8 teams into the dance, including two number one seeds.. This talk increased when they were 0-3 after the first day. Things got better after a 5-0 second day.

All in all, the first 4 days of the tournament has had some fantastic games, and one can only hope the remaining rounds are as entertaining.